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Memoir
William P. Malm
Regents' Proceedings 147
Regents' Proceedings 147
William P. Malm, professor of music (music history/musicology), will retire from active faculty status on December 31, 1994.
Professor Malm studied at Northwestern University, earning his B.M. degree in music composition in 1949 and his M.M. degree in 1950. He then served for one year as an instructor at the University of Illinois, followed by military service as an instructor at the U.S. Naval School of Music in Washington, D.C. (1951-53). After another year as a free-lance pianist and composer in New York City, Professor Maim continued his graduate education at UCLA, where he received his Ph.D. degree in ethnomusicology in 1959 and served as a lecturer in music from 1958-60. He came to the University of Michigan as an assistant professor of music in 1960; he was promoted to associate professor in 1963 and professor in 1966.
In 1966, Professor Malm received the University's Henry Russel Award. Many other awards and grants followed, including support from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Rockefeller Foundation, Exxon Foundation, Japan Foundation, and several substantial subventions from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Professor Maim held distinguished visiting professorships at Baylor University (1977), the University of California at Berkeley (1981), and the University of Iowa (1982), and has lectured at countless institutions of higher learning in this country and abroad. He was awarded Northwestern University's Alumni Merit Award in 1986, and was honored by alumni of the University of Michigan School of Music that same year.
In addition to dozens of published articles, Professor Maim is the author of six major books, among which Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East, and Asia (Prentice-Hall, 1966; second edition, 1977), also translated into Japanese and Spanish, must be regarded as especially influential. A new dimension was added to Professor Malm's distinguished scholarship and teaching in 1980, when he was appointed director of the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments. With typical elan, he brought the collection from the sidelines to center stage in the life of the University community.
The Regents now salute this faculty member by naming William P. Malm professor emeritus of music (music history/musicology).